A Great Birthday

I had a great birthday this year!  My day started out by Katelynn running into my room that morning screaming, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"  No one sent her in that morning to say it- she had remembered from the night before that it was going to be my birthday.  (I will add that the next morning she came in my room screaming it again, and it took some explaining that mommy only gets her birthday one day every year.)  In any case, we had a pretty regular day, but it was great all the same.  We went out together as a family of four for lunch and then Jonathan's parents met us for dinner.  I hosted playgroup that morning, and the kids and I just played around all day.  Jonathan actually surprised me and made me a gift this year!  If you know my husband, you know this is big.  He got cards from the kids and himself, made me a gift, and bought me a second one.  It's the first time in years he has gotten me a gift all on his own.  I was pretty proud of him.  My mom had come the weekend before and watched the kids for me, and I got my house cleaned and organized, which was seriously the greatest gift ever!  So, it was a really great birthday!

Nuh-uh!

Apparently that phrase is very upsetting to Justin as he puckers up to cry everytime he hears it.  I think it may be because now that he has a tooth (did I even blog about his first tooth?  I think I might not have, but he now has one of his front bottom ones!), he has been biting me while feeding.  Everytime he does, I pull him off and tell him "NO" (or maybe "Nuh-uh" sometimes?) sternly.  Well, a few minutes ago, I was in the kitchen and Jonathan was holding him at the table.  Justin was not even facing me.  Katelynn was starting to pull off the cardboard we have on the floor to keep us from stepping on the construction work (replacing the floor) and I said, "Nuh-uh!" as she was lifting it (not even loudly) and Justin puckered up and burst into tears.  After calming him down, Jonathan mentioned the word in a completely gentle, normal tone asking me if my saying that was what made him cry, and Justin puckered up to cry again.  Apparently it's pretty upsetting.  I guess our rough and tumble boy  is going to have to get used to it because I think we'll be telling him no a lot in the future!

On the Move

So I guess technically Justin is not yet "on the move".  He isn't really crawling yet.  Yesterday he was scooting backwards away from me when he was trying to get to me, but for the most part he's not crawling.  All of a sudden though he seems so much closer to it.  He's moving from sitting to his knees and inching forward some (and then he gets mad that he didn't get far and it's over.. ha,ha), and today he just all of a sudden decided to start pulling up to stand on anything he could.  He's not making it to standing just yet.  He goes from sitting to his knees and onto his feet, but he's not able to straighten his knees and stand up straight just yet.  Tonight I was making dinner, and I looked down to see him pulling up on Katelynn's chair in the kitchen!

When I moved around to get another picture of him, he pulled off and started clapping for himself.

And then he decided to come and get me.... unsuccessful in his attempts, but he tried! 

It won't be long I'm sure before he'll be chasing after his sister!

Halloween Crafts

We have been stuck in the house for literally a week, other than a few quick trips to the store on better days or the doctor. By yesterday we were running out of ideas for new things to do so I pulled out some of the stuff from my craft room and Katelynn and I got to work making some Halloween decorations. We still have to finish the spiders we started out of egg carton pieces, but she had a ball getting them started and making ghosts to hang up out of old material I had. I love having a little partner who likes to make crafts with me :)

Sweetest Words Ever!

We are less than a week away from Justin's 8 month mark, and I just can't believe how fast the time has gone by since he was born. This week he has started making one of the sweetest sounds that I think a baby can EVER, EVER make. My little man has started saying, "Mum-ma"!!!!!!! I am soo in love.. not that I wasn't before, but just to hear him call for me is the cutest thing and it melts my heart to pieces.

Sadly, he has been sick (respiratory virus and ear infection) for the past week and has been quite the mama's boy. I have rarely had him off my person at all (nighttime included) for a week now. 24 hours a day, he wanted to be in my arms. This is how we realized that the words he was saying were mum-ma. Anytime I would try to pass him off to Jonathan or put him down for even a second, he would start screaming and crying, "Mum-ma, Mum-ma". At first, we thought it was just a sound, but then it started becoming more clear. Still, I thought at first that he was just mumming the sound, but we really think he must know that means me because he only does it when he's NOT in my arms. Today he was feeling a bit better and was actually saying it in his highchair not crying, and it was a much sweeter sound that way. Something about him smiling while saying it melted my heart even more than crying and saying it. :)

Yesterday we even started pointing to Jonathan and saying, "Dada" to try to get him to realize the sound and who Jonathan was. He said "Baba" a time or two while we were doing this so maybe he's trying?? I bet it won't be long before he gets dada down too!!

(I have no adorable picture to share with this and I haven't taken a photo of Justin all week. He has been so snotty and gooey eyed that I figured it wouldn't be worth sharing a pic.. hopefully I will get a video of his sweet words soon!)

Rest of our Dallas Trip

Only a week and a half late, but I am finally sharing the rest of our pictures from our trip to Dallas, Texas. Did I already mention that it rained the ENTIRE time we were there (and now we have been home 8 days and still have yet to have a sunny day as the rained followed us home.. yuck!). Anyway, I was so happy that I had booked us a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas. If you have never been to a Great Wolf Lodge, I think you should go! We had a blast. We had been to the one here in Charlotte just to use the waterpark, but we had never stayed overnight. It was even better getting the entire experience. Their rooms were awesome, and they have so many cute and fun activities for the kids. We spent the two days after the wedding at the waterpark most of the day. The first day my parents were there with us so Jonathan and I got the chance to hit the big waterslides, and that was a blast! I have to admit that I have lost a lot of my "daring" personality since having kids so I was slightly chicken to get on the slides at first, but my husband pushed me up the 100 flights of stairs (or at least it felt like that many) and onto the biggest slide there had, and I had a great time and didn't want to stop once we did it. At the end of the night, we would get the kids in their PJ's and took them to storytime and then to the arcade for some playtime before bed. The first night Jonathan and I actually left before storytime and (wait for it- it's a shocker...) we WENT OUT BY OURSELVES... well, not by ourselves but without kids. We met up with my cousin, her new husband, her brother and his girlfriend, and their parents for a late night dinner and drinks. Wow... it has been a really long time since I have done that. Honestly, we have not went out for something like that EVER since Katelynn was born.

These pics are in no apparent order as blogger again isn't liking me these days, but here are some of the pictures of our days in Dallas after the wedding....

Laine and Yon's Wedding

Katelynn getting ready for the wedding- too bad it was raining and the curls didn't even stay in after going through all this trouble to curl her hair!

My cousin and her fiance (now husband) during their ceremony
This is the only picture of my parents and the kids dressed up that we got the entire night. It's one of two pictures I even got of Justin in his little suit. We never took a single family picture of everyone all dressed up the entire night! This was right after my cousin said "I do!"
Justin crashed before we even made it into the room for the reception. The loud music didn't even phase him- he was out all night. Lucky for him, his grandpa held his most of the time, which probably helped keep him asleep.
My mom's sister (bride's mom), Katelynn (trying to figure out who she is smiling next to!), and my cousin, Laine, the bride!
Katelynn and the flower girls watching the newlyweds first dance.

Katelynn had a blast at the reception. Seriously, she is more of a dancer than her daddy and I for sure. Despite the fact that it was past her bedtime before we even got to the reception, she danced her little heart out the entire time. It was 1 am our time back in NC when she stepped off the floor and headed to the car to go back to the hotel. I can't believe she never stopped the entire time hardly! It helped that there were a bunch of kids to dance with and be silly.

Off the dance floor, Katelynn was shy and didn't talk to anyone right away, but when she was dancing, she was willing to dance with anyone! This was my cousin Reid and Katelynn dancing the night away!
The wedding was beautiful, and we had such a good time. The reception was at the Dallas World Aquarium, which was really neat. We didn't look around as much as we would have liked to, but we had a great time. I just wish I would have gotten a lot more pictures that night!

Off on a Jet Plane!

We flew to Dallas on Saturday morning and then flew home on Tuesday. The kids did very well for having a two-hour flight there and back. It was Justin's first plane ride!! Since he got to be held the whole time, he was golden.





One little funny story.. well, funny now- not so funny at the time. We had booked our flight to Dallas the same day as the wedding, and I had more than one person tell me I was crazy because what if we had delays and missed the wedding??!! I wasn't really too concerned as our flight got us there at 10 am and the wedding wasn't until 7:30 that night. Our flight was a success with no delays. We arrived in Dallas on time, and I was so excited that it had worked and could tell everyone it was nothing to worry about. But.. then we go to get our stroller that we had gate checked (you leave it on the terminal and they put it in the cargo hold so you can have it all the way to your gate). Well, they couldn't get our stroller. A 68-pound pitt bull (dog just to clarify) had gotten lose during our flight (he was in a cage in the cargo hold), and I have no idea what happened to the owner, but they had to call animal control to come help them. So, it took us over three hours to get our darn stroller!! Katelynn tells everyone that a dog was running around our airplane keeping us from getting our stroller. We still made it to the hotel in plenty of time to relax and get ready before the wedding, but who would have thought that a dog would delay us from getting to where we needed to be?!

First Dance Class

So, here I go finally updating you all on Katelynn's first dance class a week after it happened! Katelynn LOVED her first dance class. It's a combination of tap, ballet, and tumbling. I was very nervous as this was going to be her first class where I had to leave her, but she did great- not a single tear or look of fear, and she had a blast! I said goodbye to her after putting on her tap shoes and she went and sat next to the teacher without looking back. We watched her on a monitor in the lobby. It did take her a few minutes before she started actually participating in class, but before long she was dancing with the rest of them, and I think she did really well. She is the youngest in the class. It's a 3-4 year old class, but when I talked with some of the moms in the waiting area, I learned that several of the girls are turning 5 in the next few months, which makes Katelynn super young since the next child is 3.5 years old, and she has yet to reach 3. It made me feel really good though beause considering the age difference, I think Katelynn did a really good job. You would never guess she was that much younger than everyone! When the hour long class was complete, she asked if she could do it again that day. She is supposed to go again tomorrow, but we are all sick after our vacation to Dallas so we may have to sit out her second class. I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes!

Clap, Clap, Clap

So Justin hit another "first" before we took our trip to Dallas. He started clapping his hands!! This video was taken the very first day he started doing it so it's not as good as he is doing it now, but I have yet to capture another video of it.




The day after this video was taken, he and Katelynn were playing with her monkey that sings, "If you're happy and you know it..." and when I looked over, they were BOTH clapping with the monkey. It was truly the cutest thing ever, and I didn't have my camera nearby to capture the moment!!

Since this video was taken, he has also started waving bye-bye at times. He still won't do it consistantly, but he has done it several times (and is doing it the RIGHT way rather than backwards!) Now, if only we could get him to crawl!

Day Out with Grandma!

This weekend we are attending my cousin's wedding in Dallas, Texas. I have been procrastinating getting the kids outfits (and myself a dress), and my mom has been asking when I'm going to go. Well, finally she jumped in the car today and drove the almost four hour drive to take us shopping. It's probably a good thing since I was being lazy about it- ha! So, we spent the entire day shopping with Grandma (and of course doing all the "fun" stuff at the malls) and then Grandma had to drive home that night. Crazy, busy day filled with fun!

So my little dancer saw this pink circle in the Express store and proclaimed, "It's my dance stage." and away she went dancing to the music they were playing. Why didn't I think to turn my camera on video mode?

This is Katelynn's favorite ride of all time at the mall- the TRAIN! She roped Grandma into riding both this and the horses with her.

And we finished off the day with Grandma reading her bedtime stories before she had to go home!

Ballerina Girl

Katelynn starts dance class this week, and we are so excited! She has been taking a "fun" dance class where they run around and be silly to music, but this is going to be a ballet and tap class that she will attend the entire school year and finish off with a recital. We got her ballet and tap shoes this weekend, and she LOVES them. She has been wearing them around the house, and she even decided she just had to take her nap in her ballet slippers today.

My only fear about dance class is that she's going to have issues with being left. Parents do not participate or even stay in the room for this, and I think it's going to be really good for her since she needs to start getting used to mommy not always being right there with her. We have been talking about it a lot all week to get her comfortable with it so hopefully it works!

The "Fun" Place

That's what Katelynn called Carowinds, the amusement park on the North Carolina/South Carolina border that we went to yesterday. This morning she told me, "I want to go to the fun place again, mommy." I was lucky enough to win tickets to Carowinds a few months ago, and we saved our tickets until this weekend in hopes the weather would be cooler- no such luck though. We still sweat in the heat yesterday, but we had a great time. Katelynn is fearless. She loved every single ride she went on and wanted to do them again and again. As we were leaving, she was wanting to go on one of the huge, twist-you-upside-down rollercoasters and was so upset when we explained that she was just a little too small yet for those.

These picture are in no order since I am having trouble with the page again tonight but here are a few from our trip yesterday!

We took Justin on four different rides that they had there. This was one of them. It may look like just Jonathan is riding in the car, but Justin is driving it- ha,ha!
Katelynn says her favorite ride was the rollercoaster. She went on with Daddy, then Mommy, and then wanted to go again... and again.... and again.

Carowinds also had a water park that was included with admission. It was soo hot that we spent our afternoon cooling off there. While Katelynn is fearless on the rides, Justin is fearless with the water. Katelynn doesn't really like the water in her face still, but Justin didn't care one bit. He was trying!

Another fave of Katelynn's was the cartoon characters. She didn't want to pose for pictures with them, but she insisted on hugs!

I remember this ride from when I was little and attended carnivals!

Another of Justin in the water. He was killing me with that tongue.. determined to catch the water on his tongue!

My two favorite guys <3

This was one of Katelynn's first rides. She wanted to be able to ride anything and everything she could BY HERSELF.

Such a sport- hanging out in the stroller while his sister was having a blast.